Canonical Territory
A diocese is the name of a territorial division, initially in the Roman Empire from Diocletian followed by many Christian churches.
This word was adopted by the Christian churches ( Roman Catholic , Orthodox , Armenian Apostolic Church , Coptic Church ) to denote the canonical territory of a bishop who was initially named parish. This is the territory under the responsibility of a single episcopal and even a bishop. In the Orthodox Churches and Eastern Catholic Churches , we sometimes use the word diocese that is not really equivalent to the word diocese because he has acquired, particularly in Greece, a rather civil and political connotations.
In Gaul , we find the first bishops in the chief town of the ancient Gallic cities , districts became Roman, then left dormant in the late Roman Empire .
A primary meaning: riding the Roman Empire
- The dioecesis (or dicesis, plural or collective), in the late Roman Empire (from the Tetrarchy founded by Diocletian ) is an administrative unit comprising several provinces and under the authority of a vicar , civilian representative of the Emperor; the diocese in turn was divided into provinces. The diocese was governed by a vicar of the prefect.
A second meaning in the church: the apostolic period to 1983
- In Christian churches, the word means: territory over which it exercises the authority of a bishop's seat to say a bishopric.
The apostles did not base the diocese. They founded churches, that is to say, parishes, gathering converts and placing them under the responsibility of a bishop of apostolic succession provided which they had laid hands.
This is the first Council of Nicaea (First Ecumenical Council) who confirmed this in 325 territorial principle that the Apostles had established during their evangelical work.
A third meaning: the Catholic Church since Vatican II and especially 1983
- The word is given the meaning of that diocese eclipse. But this change of direction does not apply to all other churches.
In the Roman Catholic Church , the diocese is now defined as a particular church, under the authority of a bishop. A diocese includes several parishes authorities. However, there are areas we said no country diocese ( Nullius dioecesis ) because there parishes depended on no Bishop . Many dioceses are an ecclesiastical province or a province Metropolitan , under the authority of an archbishop.
According to the Code of Canon Law of 1983 , which incorporates the words of Vatican II, the diocese is "serving the people of God entrusted to a bishop for that as it may, with the cooperation of the presbytery , the pastor ... "( Canon 369). The Bishops' Conference said in its glossary: "Diocese. Christian people entrusted to a bishop. By extension, the corresponding territory. The diocese is named after the city where the bishop resides and where the cathedral." .
The significance of this evolution of meaning
So beware: Bishop and diocese are not synonymous in the Episcopalian church.
The word "bishop" may refer to:
- or a church, eucharistic community at a given location around the bishop (eg, "the angel of the Church of Smyrna")
- either the institution or legal entity governed by chapter (eg 'this land belongs to the bishopric ")
- is the residence of the bishop, the building (eg, "the bishop of Angers novel)
- is the city where he resides (eg, "Dijon was erected into a bishopric.")
- may be more justly called the territory of the diocese . This sense of the word "bishop" is also consistent with ecclesiastical principalities of the Holy Roman Empire. It was the political and temporal management of territories. Thus, secular or Protestant princes were able to administer bishoprics (without taking possession of the episcopal correspondent).
The word diocese means, in principle, that a land and people: and they shall say "The bishop has good relations with Jewish and Muslim communities of his diocese," "St. Martin parish founded in the rural outskirts of diocese of Tours. "In fact, in the Roman Catholic Church, the word diocese has long been used to denote the episcopal churches that depend on their clergy and faithful .
The Orthodox Church
In the Orthodox Church , the diocese is not a church. In the Presbyterian In Presbyterian churches where the bishop is not necessary as the foundation and guarantor of the Eucharistic community, Christians baptized a given territory, provided they are organized, are at once a church. References
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